GUILTY OF MURDER

Chronicle (Levin), 14 February 1947, Page 7

GUILTY OF MURDER

—Pres's Association

FAILURE OF INSANITY PLEA ;/• • ' -AS DEFENCE .

By Telearavn-

AUCEEAND, i'eb. 13. The concluding stage of the Donald* son .murder triai w..s reached today wiien the only evideuce lveard had reiatiou to the law of insanity defehcei lncu the addresses of Counsel eommenced. JL)r. (I. B. Palmer, technical medical superintendent of the Auckland Mental nospital, said that from his knowledge of ine evideuce it appeared to him from the. time taken between getting the revolver and reaching the scene of the tragedy, that accused knew he was shooting Peachey. He then took steps to cover himself as if he kn'ew he was wrong. There was notliing to suggest he did not.know the action was' a wrong one. • lve-examined later witness ' said he examined accused and t'ound no disease uf the mind in him. This concludcd tlie Crown case cand 110 further evideuce was called by the defence. Mr. Trinimer addressed the jury fbr over three and a quarter hours. He submitted that if by any ' chance accused had been the man wdio shot Peachey, he had not known that what he was doing was wrong. He asked the jury to treat accused 's confession •.with! the gravest suspicion as it contained ho real corroboration of the crime.* ' We' sav, ' ' said Mr. Trinimer, ' ' that accused was sulfering from a state of profound. depression and was at the time meh'tally unbalaticed. Tlie coiifession he made! ihe morning the police called to eee .lini was Avorth liothing. " ' ' If ever there was a carefully planned murder earried out in every detail, it was. this, " said Mr. Meredith in his address to the jury. "We' liave heard a most remarkable defence of this man. They have claimed that Donaldson did not eomniit the murder and that if he did, he was insane. Tliey have attenipted to blind' you. with science with their evideuce on psychia-' try, psychology and criminal law. A cohl-blooded deliberate and successful murder was the only way he could describe the shooting of Peachey, said his Honour in his summing ' up which took little more than an hour. Accused was any thing but an imbecile

and he suggestcd that only a congenital ..ubecile could grow up in New Zealand to the age of 20 and not know that murder was wrong,. "It is.no defence, " said his . Honour, "t"hat this anui was sci obses'spd ait 'tlie timo that ■ 10 was not thiaiking abotit- the rightness of wrongness of what he did. Eo per.ions wno coiuniit niurdefs of passion, jealousy or revenge ev'erigo through a sta^c when they ask is this right what I am about to do. Wicked people who give way to their passions just don't iiave such debates. Accused says "I luid to do it" but the law states that even, if a person eommits a erihie on an impulse which he cannot eohtrpl, it is 110 defence. His Honour said the evid^ ence of the doclors called by the defence did not go far enough to give Ihe jury sufhcient material on which to decide whether accused knew he had done right or wrong. Three coursea were open to them. They could convict accused of murder, they could acquit him entirely or they could acquit him 011 grounds of insanity. Their verdiftt plainly dependcd 011 two questions. Was it cle'ar to them beyond all reasonable doubt that accused was the man who shot Peachey? Tf they were not satisficd accused was to be totally acquitted. If on other hand they were satisfied :hat accused did kill Peachey, was it cstablishod to their reasonable satisfaction that when accused did it he was, b.v reason of disease of mind or imbecility, incapable of knowing that he was doimr wrons. It would be auite

1 wrong to assume that merely because a person 's. mind was below normal or even if he was ccrtifiablv insane, he was unable to commit a crime. Donaldson, who is aged 27, was found guiltv of the murder of Sydney .Tohn Peachey and senteneed to life iniprisonnient vvitli hard labour by Mr. Justice Callan. The jury retired at 5.40 p.m. and returned with its verdict at 9.30. Addressing prisoner, his Honour said: "You have been found guilty of nturder and in accordance with the law, tlie sentence of the Court is that you be imprisoncd and kept at hard labour for tlie term of your natural life." y\ccused was led away to the cells below the Court. The jury was discliarged and relieved of further service for three years. — 1 — — i mm.jt